Terror suspected in EgyptAir crash

EgyptAir flight MS804 cruising from Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris, to Cairo, crashed yesterday killing all 66 passengers on board the Airbus A320 plane.
The passenger jet was flying at 37,000ft when it disappeared from radar after entering Egyptian air space, EgyptAir said.
Aljazeera quoted the North African country’s Aviation Minister, Sherif Fathi, as saying that the possibility of a terror attack was “stronger” than a technical failure.
It was gathered that floating objects suspected to be part of the plane were spotted in the Mediterranean Sea near an area where a transponder signal was detected earlier, sources in Greece said.
Greece’s Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told journalists at a news conference that soon after entering Egyptian airspace, the plane had turned “90 degrees left and 360 degrees to the right” before plunging in the southern Mediterranean sea.
Aviation officials in Greece earlier said that air traffic controllers had spoken to the pilot a few minutes earlier and everything had appeared normal.
At 4:26am, rescue teams affiliated with the Egyptian armed forces received an SOS message from the emergency unit of the missing plane, EgyptAir stated on Twitter.
The AFP news agency said the Egyptian Army later denied detecting any distress signal from the missing plane.
Greek and Egyptian armed forces are involved in the effort, and France has offered to send boats and planes.
French President François Hollande said he was keeping an open mind about the cause of the crash.
“We will draw conclusions when we have the truth about what happened,” he said.
The 56 passengers include three children, seven crew members and three security personnel on board.
Most of the victims are Egyptians and French nationals. Citizens of Britain, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Iraqi, Sudan, Chad, Chinese and Portugal were reportedly among the dead.
Meanwhile, relatives and friends of those on board the plane have been gathering at Cairo airport in the Egyptian capital.